


(dont) take this the wrong way

by delimeful



Series: October 2019 Prompts [6]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, G/T, Gen, Giant Mermaids, Giant/Tiny, Language Barrier, Mild Blood, Misunderstandings, Paranoia, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-01-25 03:22:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21349441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delimeful/pseuds/delimeful
Summary: Local shark mer Roman finds a tiny mermaid tangled up in a net in his territory, and enlists his siren friend Patton's help to find a way to free the little guy. Unfortunately for Logan, they end up 'borrowing' a human to assist them in untangling the net. Virgil just wants to get out of this nightmare of a situation.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: October 2019 Prompts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533644
Comments: 59
Kudos: 484





	1. Day 11: Underwater

Roman swam in lazy circles around his reef, enjoying the feeling of sunlight on his skin. 

Today was a beautiful day, and he couldn’t help but relish in it after the storm that had been raging overhead last night. His territory was fairly small compared to some shark mers, but even it had taken some damage, and so he was taking the opportunity the sunlight granted him to check over the reef. It wouldn’t do to have a home that was anything less than perfect. 

After checking over a majority of the area, though, it seemed that the damage was mostly superficial. Surface-level scratches on coral that would heal over naturally with time. He sighed in relief, spiraling up towards the surface. He could just make sure no human debris was floating around, and then he’d finally be able to sunbathe on his favorite rock.

When he reached the surface, however, he immediately caught the scent of blood. He frowned, twisting around to find the source, and saw a glint of metal in rocks by the nearby cliff.

He swam closer, head poking out of the water, and then inhaled sharply at the sight of a small, metal net caught between two rocks. It wasn’t the net itself that was shocking, since human debris washed up all the time, but rather the small figure tangled within it. A tiny mer! 

A little larger than a human but still small enough that he could pick them up with one hand, the mer had a long, deep purple tail with frills and fins that flowed gracefully in the water. It was so rare to see them in these waters! Roman drifted closer, entranced by the sight, and then blinked in surprise as the mer’s head jerked up, eyes wide and terrified at the sight of him. 

He thrashed in the net’s grip, and the scent of blood grew stronger, making Roman a little lightheaded. “Easy, easy.” He said, and reached out to start pulling the net from where it had been caught in the rock’s crevices. The mer pressed back, a desperate keening coming from his throat, and Roman’s heart broke a little. He gathered the net in his hands, bringing it up close to his face so he could see the tiny form more clearly. 

“Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you!” Roman reassured him earnestly. 

The tiny mer shook, eyes shut tightly as though bracing to be bit. Roman sighed, the current of warm water only making the mer shake harder, and attempted to pry some of the net away from the tiny form. The wires were astonishingly thin, and his claws slipped and nicked the poor thing’s arm, making him yelp and twist. “Oh no! I’m sorry!” 

Roman felt guilt settle into his stomach, wondering how in the world he was going to free the little guy. He couldn’t get free on his own, and Roman’s hands were much too big… 

Roman brightened, struck with an idea. He curled his hand around the tiny mer reassuringly, cupping him to his chest and beginning to swim. “Don’t you worry, I’m going to get that net off of you!” 

-

Luckily, Patton was haunting his usual waters when Roman arrived, the half-seal mer enjoying the weather as much as Roman. He lit up at the shark mer’s approach, tackling him in a hug. “Roman! What are you doing here? Normally I’m the one visiting you!” 

Roman returned the hug one-armed, feeling a bit embarrassed. “I’m sorry to bother you, Patton dear, but I need a favor.” He opened his hand, showing Patton the small entangled mer, who pressed himself into Roman’s palm as though trying to hide away from sight again. It was incredibly endearing, and Roman crooned lightly.

Patton gasped, hands fluttering as though he wanted to scoop the creature right up. “Oh my goodness, is that a tiny mer?” 

Roman nodded, curling his fingers up protectively. “I found the little guy in my territory, all tangled up like this. I tried to get the net off, but… I’m too big. I don’t dare to try using my teeth.” 

Still peering at the tiny figure, Patton hummed. “Did you want me to try? I’m not that much smaller than you, Ro.” 

“Well… Actually…” Roman grinned sheepishly, not noticing the way the tiny mer paled at the sight of his teeth. Patton looked up at him, and knew instantly what he wanted. 

“Roman! You know I don’t like doing that…” He pouted, crossing his arms. Roman quailed under his disappointed stare, but a glance down at the little mermaid made him straighten up again. 

“Please, Pat. You know I’d never judge you for it, and I swear I’ll put it right back once I get this one freed!” He pleaded, holding the mer up for emphasis, and because he knew Patton was weak to cute things. 

Patton sighed, but nodded. “Okay… but you have to remember everything I tell you, and be careful! They’re so delicate, I feel bad every time…” 

Roman agreed vigorously, making sure to listen intently as Patton lead them to the shoreline. 

-

Logan was walking the beach, gaze locked on the stars above when he heard it. 

He’d come out here to get away from the city’s air pollution and see the stars as clearly as he used to back home, so he was understandably surprised to hear the singing. A soft melody, like the kind a parent would use to lull their child to sleep, and undeniably pleasant. Logan turned his head to look for the source, not remembering anyone else on the beach, and saw a silhouetted figure in the water. 

He hesitated. It was a mildly cool night, and not many people were around, let alone swimming in such conditions, so he was undeniably curious as to what the stranger was doing. It would be rude to impose on them after he himself had come out here for solitude, but… 

As though sensing his thoughts, the figure waved, beckoning him. He spared a moment to check that there wasn’t anyone else on the beach they could be gesturing to, and then stepped into the cool waves, unwilling to keep his curiosity unfulfilled or this melodical stranger waiting any longer.

If his thoughts hadn’t been so clouded, maybe he would have noticed the irrational manner in which he walked into the water fully clothed, or the fact that he couldn’t make out any of the words in the song, or the way the figure in the water seemed to be at a much farther distance than he’d thought. The melody was at the forefront of his mind, though, and so he didn’t realize that something was wrong until he was treading water and watching as the figure approached, revealing how big it truly was. 

He gaped up at the vaguely inhuman face looming over him, brain working to process it all. A mer- no, a siren? He’d been lured out by their song. He’d heard about the elusive giants, but hadn’t thought any were bold enough to come this close to a city. 

Apparently, he was wrong.

The panic only hit him once the siren scooped him from the water in one hand, lifting him up to face level. He thrashed, deathly afraid that the huge mouth was going to take a bite out of him, but the siren only looked at him with an expression oddly reminiscent of a smile and then covered him with their other hand, trapping him like a child with a firefly. He almost tipped over as the siren began to move, still keeping him above-water. 

Well. At least the creature wasn’t planning on drowning and/or devouring him immediately, though he wondered why. Perhaps they were planning on feeding him to their young? Did sirens play with their food?

It didn’t matter, he thought as he shook the thought away with a shudder. He had more time to plan an escape, and that was what counted.

-

Virgil took a shuddering breath, desperately trying to calm himself down enough to actually think. He had to stop cowering here like a guppy and actually find a way out of this situation! 

Okay, first. Take stock of what’s going on. 

He resisted the urge to giggle hysterically at his situation. He’d gotten caught in a human poaching net, drifted painfully until catching on some rocks that left him almost stranded out of the water, been found by a _shark mer_ of all things, and now he was in said mer’s hand in a sea cave, waiting for the giant mer and his siren friend to figure out a way to get this net off so they could finally eat him. He wondered if this was how mussels felt when he spent ages trying to pry them open. 

The other mer arrived, popping out of the water energetically, and Virgil morbidly wondered how they were going to split him. Evenly? 30 - 70? Maybe the siren would only get a bite. 

He was distracted from thoughts of his imminent death by the sight of the siren raising his hands, which were closed into a tight circle. The shark holding him- Roman?- perked up, drifting closer. 

“Did you get one?” He asked, and the siren- Patton, he was pretty sure, though why he was recalling the names of the ones that were going to kill him was beyond him- opened his hands like an anemone blooming. 

In them sat a human, bespectacled and looking about as out of his depth as Virgil felt. He felt a strange pang of empathy, despite it being humans’ fault that he was stuck in this mess in the first place. Poor guy was going to be used as a tool to open his net and then chowed on. Looked like the shark mer wasn’t going to have to share him after all. 

The empathy vanished as the two giants set them both down on a shelf of rock above the water, leaving the human very much in his element and Virgil very much not. He wasn’t even able to sit up, too caught in the net to move or even open his mouth. He’d tried biting the net back when he’d been drifting along, and accidentally effectively muzzled himself.

The human took a step forwards, looking between him and the giants, and Virgil growled threateningly, flaring his ear fins. 

“Hey, don’t be mean!” Roman chided, reaching down and setting a hand on him as though trying to soothe a pufferfish. “He’s only trying to help.” 

Despite himself, Virgil froze under the touch, afraid he would be crushed if he disagreed. The human watched him with keen eyes, and when Roman withdrew, he didn’t step forwards again. Instead, he sat on the ground a distance away, raising a hand up. 

“May I help you?” He asked, and Virgil’s eyebrows raised. He hadn’t expected the guy to try talking to him. Generally speaking, humans were more stab first, ask never.

He shook his head sharply anyways. The longer he was in this net, the longer he wasn’t in a shark’s mouth. Even if he was beginning to get dizzy from blood loss. The human frowned, but surprisingly enough, stay put. 

“Very well. I am Logan. I assume you can understand me, but can you speak?” 

Virgil hesitated for a moment, before shaking ‘no’ again and then tilting his head back slightly to display the wires wrapped around his jaw. Logan nodded. 

“Ah, I see. Then-” 

“What are they saying?” Patton asked, inadvertently cutting Logan off. Virgil looked up at them in disbelief. He’d known that giant mers were fairly isolated from humans, but he’d spent so long using human knowledge to avoid them that he could barely imagine not knowing the language. Being big really did change one’s perspective on things, he supposed.

Roman cast him a concerned look. “I don’t know… maybe the little guy scared him? Here, let me…”

He reached over, prompting Virgil to flatten himself further against the rock, and gently slid Logan across the distance between them, leaving the human only a foot away. Virgil’s ears pinned back, but he didn’t hiss, both out of fear of Roman and because he could tell by the look on Logan’s face that he was an unwilling participant in the movement. 

“My apologies.” He mumbled once the hand retracted and they’d both taken a breath. “I have no idea what they’re saying, but I assume they want me to do something about the net. Am I correct?” 

Virgil nodded, but something fearful in his body language must have shone through, because Logan didn’t reach out. 

“What… Do you know what they will do to us once you are free?” He asked lowly, pretending to be looking over the netting. Virgil took a deep breath, figuring he might as well tell the guy, and then managed to pry his mouth open just enough to clack his teeth in a mockery of a biting motion. 

Logan exhaled sharply, unsurprised. “Well then. I suppose that in order to have more time to formulate a plan of escape, I could make untangling this net much more complicated than it has to be, hm?”

Virgil blinked, looking between him and the two giant mers staring down at them with undisguised curiosity. Logan spoke again, carefully sliding his fingers along Virgil’s face and working the netting free. 

“How does a temporary alliance to get out of here sound?” 

Virgil worked his jaw as the metal was finally removed, both of them tense with the knowledge that he could lunge forwards and take a bite out of the human himself at this range. He opened his mouth. 

“Deal.”


	2. Day 24: Blood

Logan exhaled as the mer agreed to his proposed deal, some of the tension falling from his shoulders. It was a reasonable calculated risk, pulling the wire mesh away and freeing the mer’s mouth, but a primal part of him still grew nervous at the sight of the stranger’s sharp fangs. 

Most normal mers subsisted on seafood diets like many creatures in the ocean, but as overfishing forced them closer and closer to populated areas, there were quite a few cases of mers luring humans over to slaughter and eat them, sometimes even becoming serial murderers. The uneasy mermaid before him may have been tiny compared to the giant mers, but to Logan, he was a few feet larger in body, and still posed a significant threat. 

Luckily, the mer wasn’t an idiot and agreed to work with him, which was a relief, seeing as getting captured by a supposedly extinct giant siren had thoroughly thrown Logan off and he could use all the assistance he could get. He looked over the netting, noting that it was digging harshly into the mer’s skin and scales in several places, sometimes even drawing blood. 

“Can you ask them to retrieve supplies to stop the bleeding?” Logan asked, and the mer glanced at him incredulously from where he was half-propped up on the ground.

“What?” He hissed through his teeth. 

“We need to stall, and you need your wounds treated. You can speak with them, right?” Logan explained, raising an eyebrow. 

The mer glanced at the giants, looking back to him with an expression that spoke volumes before shaking his head as much as he could. “I’m not demanding anything from giant mers! That’s how you get yourself killed. They want to _eat us._” 

“I can only sit here pretending to investigate this net for so long.” Logan could feel the gazes of the giant mers sitting heavy on his shoulders. “Look- what’s your name?” 

The mer eyed him suspiciously for a long moment, in which Logan exercised considerable patience. “… Virgil.” 

“Look, Virgil, we need them to be distracted, and the best way to do that is to send them off on tasks that they think will get them to their end goal faster. I can’t talk to them, so you’re going to need to pass on my messages.” He explained, eyes flickering to the side when one of the giants shifted closer. 

That raspy, clicking language started up again between the two, their voices deep and resonant, and Logan had to shake himself to keep his thoughts from drifting. Virgil’s frill-like ears flattened against the sides of his head, and his shoulders shook with barely-concealed panic.

“Calm down.” Logan told him. “Breathe deeply with me, okay? Try to tell me what’s going on.”

After a couple of deep breaths, Virgil managed to pull himself together to translate. “They’re wondering if there’s something wrong. Roman- The shark mer asked if they should try to find a different human instead.” 

Logan’s heart rate rose, knowing what the most likely outcome would be if they deemed him useless. He shifted to the side, beginning to sort through the tangled mess of frills and netting at the end of the mermaid’s long tail. 

“What are you doing?” Virgil asked indignantly, voice layered with a low hiss. Logan carefully shifted some netting away. 

“I’m untangling the ends of the net. If you can’t speak with them, this is the only option that I have to buy time without getting eaten.” 

“You-!” Virgil narrowed his eyes at him, the slit pupils shrinking. The tail in Logan’s grasp flicked, and Logan frowned as it increased the bleeding coming from a torn fin. 

“Stop that.” He scolded. 

“You stop that!”

“I am not going to be discarded like an edible pair of broken scissors because you can’t bother to demand something from the giants who are going to _eat you anyways if you don’t!_” Logan said, grabbing the sinuous end of the tail and planting it firmly in his lap again for emphasis. 

Virgil glared back at him viciously, but to his surprise, the next words he spoke were in that other language. The giant mers both looked to him with surprise and then happiness, as though he was a cute puppy that had done a trick, and Logan frowned as the siren ruffled Virgil’s hair with a finger, making him brace like his head was going to be taken clean off. 

He cleared his throat, forcing himself not to shrink back when the two huge, predatory gazes fell to him instead.

“Can I get those medical supplies, _now _preferably?” He asked, a bit snappy. 

-

“He… uh. He wants to know if someone could retrieve some stuff to treat wounds?” Virgil managed to offer weakly when the two giant mers turned back to him for an explanation. He shot a petulant side eye at Logan, who looked entirely unrepentant. He was lucky these two didn’t understand human tongue, or the human would really be screwed, speaking so arrogantly.

To his surprise, both mers brightened at the concept of actively doing something for their captives. 

“Oh, I know where to find some herbs that might help!” Patton offered eagerly, and Roman nodded. 

“I believe something sharp to cut the net with would not be amiss either.” He grinned, putting that terrifying mouth of shark teeth on display. “Race you!” 

In a heartbeat, the shark mer vanished underwater with a splash, and Patton let out a shout of protest before quickly diving after him. The waves created from their quick descent bounced against the walls, the only noise for a long moment. Logan pulled his gaze from the water to Virgil. 

“Did they just…?” 

Virgil nodded slowly.

“And so now we’re…?” 

Another nod. Logan adjusted his salt-encrusted glasses, closing his mouth with a click. 

“Well. In that case, this might not be as impossible as I thought.” He quickly began to pull at several weak spots in the netting, managing to unravel a fair amount, even getting an entire arm free, but it really was badly tangled. Virgil tried to help but ended up gasping in pain as a harsh tug tore at his side gills. 

“If only I had my pocket knife…” Logan muttered, and Virgil didn’t bother to inform him that if Logan had come at him with a sharp object earlier, Virgil probably would have gone for the jugular. 

Wait. Sharp? 

“… Screw it.” Virgil muttered, and reached up with his one free hand to his mouth. He tested the strength of a few of his front layer of teeth, and then grasped one at the base with his sharp claws and pulled. 

Logan made a faint noise of horror as the tooth came loose with a grunt of pain, and then recoiled when Virgil shoved the blood-covered fang at him. 

Virgil growled impatiently. “Any day now!” 

The human finally sprung back into action, sawing at the netting and managing to cut away the most tangled bits until Virgil was finally free. He shoved the last of the wires off and dove for the water immediately, sighing in relief as his dry gills were soothed and blood washed away as he twisted happily in loops. He never thought he’d get to feel this again! 

Soon though, he was forced to remember that they weren’t out of the reef yet, and the giant mers could return any moment. He returned to the surface, where Logan was peering out over the edge of the water. He jumped when Virgil’s head popped up, and set a hand on his chest. 

“You’re here. I thought…” He trailed off, face pale, and Virgil abruptly realized how his sudden departure must have looked. The human didn’t have a way off this rock shelf, so without Virgil’s help he was stranded to wait for the two giant mers- the ones that wouldn’t be too happy to find one of their snacks missing. Honestly, leaving him would even be the smartest thing to do to get away quick, but Virgil wasn’t a _total_ jerk.

“Uh, sorry.” He offered, awkward. “Got a little excited.” 

Logan shook his head. “…No apology needed. How are we getting out of here?” The siren had brought him into the cave by sealing his hands around him to create an airtight bubble, but Virgil could hardly do such a thing at his size. 

Virgil reached a webbed hand up. “I’ll pull you. You just have to hold your breath for as long as you can.” 

Logan nodded, beginning to breathe deeply to oxygenate his blood. When he was ready, he reached out and grabbed Virgil’s hand, taking a deep breath and holding it. 

Virgil wasted no time in pulling him under, and with a flick of his powerful tail they were off, leaving the cave empty and silent behind them.


	3. Whoops, All Misunderstandings!

Virgil hurriedly propelled himself through the wide tunnels of the underwater cave system, all of his nerves screaming. Every time he turned a corner, he expected the two giant mers to be on the other side, sharp teeth and cage-like hands at the ready.

It didn’t help matters that he was already weighed down by an entire human dragging along behind him. He cast a glance over his shoulder, where Logan was clutching at his spectacles with one hand and desperately hanging onto Virgil’s wrist with the other. Good thing humans didn’t have claws, or Virgil would be spilling even more blood all over the place than he already was.

A fresh current brushed past him, and he took the next turn sharply, just barely not grazing the rough tunnel walls. There! He could see an exit, the bright blue of the open ocean just beyond it.

Halfway there, Logan’s grip on his hand turned painful, the bones in his wrist creaking under the pressure.

“What?” he snapped, despite knowing that the human couldn’t understand his irritable clicks.

When he turned, however, the problem was obvious: the human was out of air, bubbles leaking from his nose and mouth.

Virgil bit his lip and wasted a moment looking between Logan’s purpling face and his gateway to freedom. His instincts knew what the smart thing to do was, but he couldn’t stop remembering the way the human had given him space, spoke politely, kept him calm in the face of overwhelming terror.

“Oh, fine, _fine!”_ he finally groaned, swearing profusely as he found the nearest upward crevice and dragged the both of them into it.

The moment they breached the surface, Logan was spluttering and gasping, halfway to choking on his own spit. Virgil shoved him up onto the nearest ledge and hurriedly pulled himself up after, the phantom feeling of giant hands grasping at him enough to make him want to vacate the water entirely.

Unfortunately, he’d massively underestimated the size of the rock shelf, and ended up flopped over the wheezing human from head to fin.

Whoops.

—

“Wh– What–?” Logan attempted to dislodge the mermaid sprawled on top of him, and then stilled as Virgil hissed at him from close range, those rows of teeth only inches from his neck.

It was just one thing after another, today. He tried to steady his breathing, and after a moment, regained his composure. “Seeing as this is a limited space and sharks are quite sensitive to blood, I would advise against trying to consume me at this juncture.”

Virgil pushed himself up further, enough that their faces weren’t inches apart, and now Logan could properly see his disgusted expression. “What? Ew, gross, no. If I cared that little about your life, I would have just let you drown back there.”

“Oh.” Logan coughed awkwardly, his cheeks a bit hot. “In that case, why tackle and pin me?”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “I’m trying to keep out of the water so we don’t get noticed, numbskull. Do you see any more room on this little ledge?”

It was true; there wasn’t much space in the fissure. At least some light made it down from above, illuminating their current position. Logan frowned thoughtfully.

“Hm, if you’ll allow me to adjust…”

With a significant bit of shifting around and a few more hisses from Virgil about ‘manhandling’, Logan managed to get upright, with his legs crossed in the lotus position. Virgil was sitting up as well, though half of his tail had to curl over Logan’s lap.

“Much better,” Logan said, satisfied. Virgil still looked a bit green around the gills from watching Logan bend his knees. “I suppose this is as opportune a time as any to thank you for saving my life.”

Logan had kind of hoped the mermaid would be too nauseous to pay attention, but to no avail. Virgil’s ear fins twitched strangely, and he lifted his head to look at Logan with something like surprise.

Seemed as though he had to elaborate. Ugh, feelings. “From my observations, you could have left me and made your escape much faster. It would have been pragmatic of you, but I appreciate that you didn’t. Unfortunately, now we’re both trapped here, with no idea when or if those giants lurk nearby. So you have my thanks and my apologies.”

Virgil made a strange trill-click, his expression amused. “Don’t apologize for me saving your life, dumbass. You had no say in the matter. Anyways, at least when I die, it’ll be in the company of a ballsy human.”

“_If_ you die,” Logan corrected the cognitive distortion automatically. “Remember, there’s still options available that could lead us to freedom. Though… I’m unsure how far out in the ocean the siren carried me. It’s entirely possible that I will run out of stamina and drown before I reach land.”

“Listen, if we get out of this alive, I’ll tow you to a beach myself,” Virgil replied with a snort. “Sorry man, but once they find their snacks have vanished, they’re going to be out for blood.” 

“You seem to have quite a negative outlook on our chances.” Logan watched as the purple caudal fin flicked back and forth absently. “Are they truly that devoted to devouring us?”

“I mean… I dunno how much, I’m not a mind reader. I just try not to make a habit of pissing off anything big enough to eat me in one bite,” Virgil snarked back. “It’s how I’m still alive. If there’s one thing I’m sure about, it’s that there’s no way they would just let us go.”

—

Patton and Roman stared at the cave shelf in stunned silence.

Where before there had been a human and a tiny mer, there was now only a splotchy puddle of blood and the remnants of a fishing net scattered about.

“Oh dear,” Patton said, looking down at the kelp bandages he’d retrieved.

Roman dropped his sword and ran his hands through his hair, shocked. “Why in the sea did they vanish like that? What about sharks? What about the _human_?!”

“Oh _dear,_” Patton said again, remembering how far out they were from the little guy’s home. “Why would they leave? I didn’t think the human could swim far enough or long enough to get out of this cave system!”

Roman frowned, squinting at a sharp tooth he’d found among the shredded net. “… Maybe he couldn’t. The little mer— he couldn’t hurt us, obviously, but— the human is so _small,_ and he growled at him, remember? What if—?”

The shark mer was looking more horrified by the minute, and Patton set a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Ro. How about I try and call for the human? If he hears it, I’ll know.”

Roman nodded quickly, and Patton took a deep breath before letting the magic coiled inside him rise up, lace itself through his voice in the ringing tones that the human had best responded to back on the beach.

In the distance, there was a jerk of surprise-recognition-fear as his song reached the ears of the human, and Patton grimaced at the feeling that curled along the siren bond. He tried to soothe the terror, coaxing the human back towards the water with promises that he wouldn’t be hurt, that they were just there to help and get him home.

After a few moments, the human succumbed to his magic, letting go of his resistance with something like resignation. Patton bit his lip briefly but didn’t stop, waiting for the moment he would hit the water and reveal his whereabouts to Patton.

It never came.

Patton blinked, surprised, but the human continued to stay in place, despite struggling to reach the song’s source. Was he being… restrained?

He broke the song off after another few moments with no movement, quickly reassuring Roman that the human was still alive, and not hurt.

“I think he’s being held in place though,” he added, and Roman’s expression darkened. “I can get close, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to pinpoint the exact place. In tunnels like these, it could be anywhere.”

“The small mer was bleeding, remember?” Roman replied, tail swishing in agitation. “If I can catch the scent, I can get us the rest of the way there. Let’s go.”


	4. Chapter 4

Virgil was in the middle of listening to Logan explain what humans believed about the night sky when the siren called.

He didn’t realize it at first. The song wasn’t designed to reach his ears, and above water, his hearing was considerably worse anyhow.

It was very nearly a disaster.

Normally, when a victim of a siren hears their song, their mind goes blank and calm, and they instantly, thoughtlessly move to reach the source.

Virgil was familiar with sirens. How they operated, and what the effects of their magic looked like. However, for all his finely-honed instincts, even he wouldn’t be able to stop a human from sliding off their tiny rock shelf with no warning.

Luckily, Logan didn’t seem to be a normal case.

Instead of taking a dive, his whole body went stiff with the tension of resisting the mental pull, and his calm, measured description of human constellations cut off with a sharp, strangled noise.

Seeing as Virgil’s tail was draped over him, and he’d actually been listening to the man speak with interest, he picked up on the change immediately. His ear frills flicked up attentively, seeking out the source of Logan's disturbance.

“Logan?” he asked, pushing himself up further. “Logan, what is it, what’s wrong?”

The human’s eyes managed to lock on him, desperate, but he couldn’t seem to speak past stuttered false starts.

It only clicked once Logan reached up to cover his ears, body shaking harshly as he tried ineffectively to block out a noise Virgil couldn’t hear.

“The siren,” he blurted like an idiot, just in time to see Logan’s face go from pinched up in pain to smooth like sea glass. In one motion, he shoved Virgil’s tail off of him, and then attempted to throw himself into the water.

“_Oh no you don’t,_” Virgil growled, lunging forward and grabbing Logan by the shoulders. The human attempted to wrest himself free with surprising ferocity, and Virgil cringed as he felt several of his cuts reopen.

Still, he held on, eventually managing to shove Logan onto his back long enough to drape his entire body weight on him and pin him to the rock beneath them. He curled his tail over a thrashing leg and pressed his forehead against Logan’s, trying to lock eyes with the frantic man. With his wounds, a battle of attrition wouldn’t end in his favor.

“Come on, come back,” he coaxed, ignoring the way Logan bared his little nub teeth with numb fury. “I didn’t haul your ass all the way out here just to see you get singsonged back into the hands of Big and Bigger.”

Then, like a puppet with strings cut, Logan went limp and still. Virgil refused to loosen his hold, well aware that the siren could be faking him out, waiting till he relaxed to start the song’s pull again.

Beneath him, Logan’s eyes fluttered back open, looking confused but not so horribly empty anymore. “V… Virgil?”

Virgil let out a low sigh, his fins drooping with relief. “Yeah, I’m right here. You didn’t manage to do anything dangerous, don’t worry.”

There was a moment of quiet as they both regained their bearings, and Virgil propped himself up on his elbows so there was a little more space between their faces.

“I have to be honest,” he muttered, still shaking slightly from the adrenaline rush, “I really wasn’t expecting today to go like this.”

Logan nodded, a tiny up and down motion of agreement. “Thank you... again. I think I’ll owe you a significant amount after all this.”

Virgil chuckled, and then breathed out sharply as the motion agitated some of his injuries. He pushed himself up a little further. “Are you going to throw yourself off this ledge to your watery doom the second I sit up?”

“No, I don’t believe so,” he replied, which earned him a doubtful look. “I mean that genuinely. The siren’s call wasn’t so all-encompassing that I couldn’t resist for a few moments. It seemed almost… like it was an attempt to reassure, not dominate.”

“_Your _attempts to reassure could use some work, too,” Virgil deadpanned, but gave him some more space to sit up anyways. “Don’t let it fool you. That’s the nature of siren calls. They want you to feel safe and reassured right up until you’re already between their teeth.”

Logan shifted clumsily into the same seated position he was in before. “Noted. I suppose that does make sense, I… hold on, are you bleeding?”

Virgil raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, still somewhat jittery. “Only since this morning. Well-spotted.”

“I mean, more than before,” he replied, casting a short glare at him. “It looks like your wounds have… reopened.”

Well. So much for not letting the human catch on to how hard they’d tussled. “It won’t kill me.”

“Perhaps not, but it_ will _weaken you, if you leave it untreated like this,” Logan scolded. He carefully pulled Virgil’s tail closer to inspect it, and then looked mournfully at his shirt for a moment before beginning to tear long strips from it.

“Woah, woah,” Virgil flicked his tail out of the way with a wince before the human could start tying stuff to it. “Use your words, I can’t handle any mysteries right now.”

“Bandages,” Logan replied, holding them out for Virgil’s inspection. “To prevent excessive bleeding. A bit makeshift, but they’re the best I can do at the moment.”

With a pointed look, he dragged Virgil’s tail back into his lap and set about bandaging them with careful, precise motions. Virgil twitched a fin petulantly, but really, the human was being extremely gentle with him. It was… nice.

“You have a lot of scar tissue,” Logan said absently, voice low in the quiet of the tunnel.

“I’ve been in a lot of fights,” Virgil replied, resisting the urge to flop down and relax under the gentle ministrations. How long had it been, since he’d just had someone be near him? Touch him without intent to harm?

Probably too long, if he had to ask.

“Bad luck, or finding trouble?” Logan asked.

“Bad luck,” Virgil insisted automatically, because it really felt that way most days. “... Maybe some of them were me finding trouble.”

The human exhaled shortly, and when Virgil peered over at him, he could see the edge of his mouth tilting up in amusement. “You do seem the type.”

“I’d take offense, if I wasn’t so tired from _saving your life like five times_,” Virgil snarked back, without any real bite to it.

“And from the blood loss.”

“... And from the blood loss,” Virgil admitted petulantly, and forced himself not to grin a sharp-toothed smile when he heard Logan laughing quietly at him.

Focused as he was on the human, he didn’t notice the swell of the water at their side until it was too late.

A clawed hand broke the surface, fingertips searching the walls of the small air-filled tunnel. Virgil immediately dragged Logan closer, crowding the human into the space between him and the wall. He curled his tail up and drew his fins flat against his body, hoping to evade the inquisitive prodding of whichever giant mer had found them.

In some unspoken agreement, they both kept still and quiet as though a single noise would give away their location. Virgil’s heartbeat was loud in his ears, and he had no doubt that Logan was as consumed by the urge to find a way out as he was.

But there were none. They were trapped. They couldn’t flee. All there was to do was fight and/or die.

The hand grew nearer and nearer, until Virgil’s self restraint snapped.

\---

“Ow!”

Roman hissed as he withdrew his hand, eyeing the gouges that the mer had clawed into his pointer finger. Patton offered him some woven kelp to stem the bleeding, but it was barely necessary.

The fact that the tiny mer was so unrepentantly vicious towards them only added to Roman’s theory, though.

“At least we know they’re up there?” Patton offered, glancing at the relatively small tunnel outlet above their heads. “It would certainly be easier if we could talk face to face, though.”

“We can at least make that happen with one of them,” Roman muttered, and then grit his teeth and reached back up. He grabbed for the spindly tail of the small mer and yanked, hopefully hard enough to keep the mer from grabbing onto any handholds.

He expected the mer to claw at him again, but there was no such attack. On the contrary, the little form in his grip was strangely nonresistant as Roman dragged him back into view.

Roman quickly realized that the mer had managed to smack the back of his head into something on the way down, going by the faint smell of fresh blood and the fact that the tiny thing was utterly unconscious. He immediately felt bad, and Patton’s worried gasp only increased his guilt. "Roman!"

“I didn’t intend to hurt him! I just--!”

Before he could dig himself into a deeper trench, there was another splash from above, and they looked up together to see the human had dived in, swimming toward them with inefficient little kicking motions. He looked unharmed, which was both relieving and confusing.

Roman looked at Patton, who was very much not singing or doing any sort of siren magic to lure the human to them. Whatever the human’s intention was, swimming directly at Roman like that, it was solely his own.

“We… we should get him back up to the surface,” Roman managed, seeing the way the human seemed to be slowing. “No gills, remember?”

“Right. Right!” Patton shook himself out of his own astonishment, and gathered the human up in one hand. “Shedding some sunlight on the situation will do us good, too.”

Once again, Roman tucked the small mer into the palm of his hand, hurrying to follow Patton out of the caves.

They managed to get to the surface in time, but just barely. The human spent a long few moments coughing and breathing roughly before turning back to them and speaking in that strange, guttural human language.

The two of them blinked back without comprehension, and the disappointed look the human gave them was enough to make Roman prickle indignantly. He hadn’t interacted with humans in decades, who was he supposed to learn the language from? He certainly hadn’t had the time to prepare for this little adventure.

In the end, the human simply pushed his way past Patton’s curled up fingers, dropping into the water and nearly giving the both of them a heart attack until they realized how buoyant the human was. He bobbed his way over to Roman again, this time making it to his intended goal: the small mer.

Curious beyond measure, Roman lifted his hand, and the small mer by extension, up further so the human could climb onto it without submerging himself. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t for the human to carefully prop the tiny mer up and check his head injury with expert motions.

Now that he looked closer, the mer’s tail was swathed in bandages that hadn’t been there before, too. He’d assumed that the human had been held hostage, but this... this tender treatment seemed more like the care between allies.

Why, then, had the mer restrained the human from answering Patton’s call? Why flee the caves at all, when the human’s odds of surviving such a swim were worrisome at best?

“He’s shaking,” Patton murmured as he drifted a little closer to peer down at Roman’s two passengers with undisguised worry. “Is it too cold?”

The air was warm and balmy, with barely a breeze. The human’s shaking only increased as Roman leaned in, and he realized with a jolt that it was fear. Fear… of _them._

Suddenly, seen through this new lens, his actions for the past half-day were looking more and more horrifying.

“Oh no…,” he mumbled, watching the human glance up at them with narrowed eyes.

It looked like the language barrier and their own foolishness had caused a more severe miscommunication than they’d thought.


End file.
